Perth man jailed for two years over kangaroo torture

Kangaroo torturer Luke Kevin Dempster jailed for two years

Topics

A man who punched an injured kangaroo 11 times and laughed as he filmed his friends torturing animals has been jailed for two years for what a magistrate described as “extremely disturbing behaviour”.

Luke Kevin Dempster, 26, committed horrific acts of cruelty against two kangaroos and a chicken earlier this year.

He repeatedly punched an injured kangaroo and took footage of a chicken that was set on fire, a kangaroo that was shot and another kangaroo that was stabbed about 22 times.

Joondalup magistrate Gregory Benn described Dempster’s actions as extreme and said it would be some time before he got the videos out of his head.

Camera IconLuke Dempster and one of his co-accused took a photo of themselves showing off bloody knuckledusters.Picture: Seven News.

He said nothing could explain the “obvious pleasure, the excitement, the thrill and delight” that Dempster showed in the footage.

“It’s not just the torture, the suffering inflicted on these defenceless animals, the killing of these animals in extreme circumstances in which they were clearly in an extreme state of pain, distress, fear,” he said.

“You didn’t show one ounce of compassion, no care, no concern for what you were inflicting, what your mates were inflicting on these animals.

“No reasonable, no right-minded law-abiding member of the community with even a basic sense of decency, I have no doubt, could not look at these videos without being struck by the clear horror.”

Mr Benn accepted Dempster was ashamed of what he had done but said it appeared he was ashamed about being caught and having the matter publicised.

He questioned the impact Dempster’s behaviour would have on his six-year-old son.

In March, Dempster filmed a chicken that was set on fire and injured by a small explosive device.

“What a cooked c…,” Dempster said before he zoomed in on the collapsed animal.

“Blew it’s head clean off.”

Two months later, he laughed as he filmed a man holding an injured kangaroo by the neck before the animal was shot in the eye with a rifle.